Communal Power: James City and the Committee of Twelve

James City, a town on the banks of the Trent and Neuse rivers in eastern North Carolina, was once the site of a freedmen’s colony during the Civil War. Developed to house the dependents of U.S. Colored Troops and refugees in the region, the camp was developed in 1863 and continued into Reconstruction. Within the contraband camp, freedpeople developed a unique and autonomous governing structure, built by the newly formed kinship ties they developed within the camp. This presentation explores the development of this governing system during the Civil War and how these politics persisted into Reconstruction and the late nineteenth century. Utilizing Freedmen’s Bureau records, pension records, and local newspapers, I explore how this governing structure both affirmed and subverted traditional gendered constructions of political participation and armed resistance. The council, which would become known as the committee of twelve, wielded the collective power of the communal bonds forged during the Civil War to maintain the sovereignty of the community and to prevent land theft. Despite occupying the space for over thirty years after the war, they were displaced at the end of the 19th century, and many were forced to abandon the place that they called home. Ultimately, the paper will explore how black folks in the post-emancipation South experimented with self-governing systems, bounded by multifaceted and reconstructed definitions of kin that sustained their autonomous communities.